Ben Crane Leads the AT&T Byron Nelson After 36 Holes

Ben Crane has found himself atop the leaderboard at the AT&T Byron Nelson after shooting a five-under-par 65, and a seven-under-par 63 in his first two rounds after being cut from his last two events.

Photo courtesy houstonchronicle.com.

Crane got off to a rocky start this season and has been cut from eight of the 17 events he’s played in so far. At this rate, he’s shaping up to miss more cuts than he has in any other season to date. However, let’s not think about that and discuss his impressive start to this week’s event at the TPC Four Seasons Resort.

Crane’s second round fell just short of impeccable as he collected five birdies to just one bogey on the front nine and was able to add three more birdies to that total on the back nine. Crane was near masterful on the par 4’s on the front nine, carding a birdie on every one of them except for the eighth hole. The par-4 eighth would give him a little trouble causing him to card his only bogey for the event. After the first two rounds, Crane currently holds a one-stroke lead over the likes of Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, and two others.

Moving forward it won’t be a question of whether Crane will have the ability to stave off the fierce competitors behind him; it’ll be a question of whether he can maintain his ability to put up good scores as he’s had some trouble staying in the negative numbers consistently over the past few years.

Photo courtesy pgatour.com.

Switching gears, Jordan Spieth decided to let his foot off the brake and has played very well through his first two rounds posting a combined 11-under-par. After missing the cut at the Players Championship and watching Jason Day notch another win on his season, the cogs must have finally meshed for Spieth because he’s playing some fantastic golf. Spieth’s only problem seems to be the par-3 thirteenth hole which he’s bogeyed for two consecutive days.

Spieth’s had little success at this event placing tied for 30^th and tied for 37^th in 2015 and 2014 respectively but he looks to change that as he and Ben Crane tee of alongside Brooks Koepka at 11:50 AM CT.